for years there have been rumours of Russians assassinating people in the UK and in many other countries too.

Even back then it was pushed under the carpet.

Im sure the UK special organisations too have been part of assassinating people on foreign soil too, no one will ever know for sure unless someone whistle blows, even then what actual proof would they have? Its all speculation and while i love buzzfeed its not always accurate. Some serious reporting it seems this time though.

It’s always refreshing to read a discrepant opinion on the ‘received truth’ issuing from the mouths of British politicians about the evil designs of foreign nations and their leaders living and scheming east of the Port of Calais. Thus Theresa May’s whipped-up indignation from the Dispatch Box about the poisoning of the turned Russian spy and his daughter in Salisbury.

Listening to a British Intelligence source on radio today, I heard him give an embarrassed laugh when he said, “Of course, we don’t do things like that!” (meaning assassinate foreign intelligence agents on their own soil"). Of course we don’t, 007! That’s just hooey of the kind millions devour in our cinemas, clapping, whooping, whistling and stamping their feet on the carpet as another Red Soviet bastard explodes in a storm of bone-shards, blood and shredded intestines!

One of the reasons I left Britain for France was to get some of the stink of British political hypocrisy out of my nostrils. I love my country, and trust my compatriots, but have come to despise a political faction that represents class and corporate interests over the progressively oppressed masses. There is a flicker of hope that the tide may be turning with Labour and Momentum, the young, and more empowerment of women: like you and your brave voice, Helen6. Thank goodness there are many more like you, across the “free world”, and your ranks are swelling. Good luck to you and thanks. Don’t relent, don’t falter, we need your voice and your clarity. I’m on the side of the fairies too.

I’ve been watching the “developments” over the weekend…(as well as watching Crufts but that was purely because a Border Collie won the pastoral group and I would have loved her to win best in show…pity that the totally extremist animal rights group PETA were allowed any airtime or media coverage…not that I’m a fan of all the big Pharma and big pet food industry corporate sponsorship associated with Crufts either but I digress…) Yep…I’ve been trying to fathom how someone might have got a “Russian nerve agent” through customs by whatever means when porton down is only 8 Miles down the road…??? It feels like massive media propaganda distraction from…??? What…??? What are “they” trying to distract us from…??? There is no “money” or profit to be gained for the gangster banksters in peace breaking out across our planet…Yep I would much rather listen with my own heart… intuitively to the fae the sprites The/Our/Y-Our s-elves the elementals the dragons…and try and make some sense of why we are all here together right now on this amazing planet to make a difference…than listen to the media hype and bullshit that seems intent on “Armageddon”…C-R-A-Z-Y…as that sounds…x

I think that UK politicians have generally lost the plot! First of all we have them setting up committees to investigate Team Sky & Sir Bradley Wiggins for not breaking any rules at all but destroying their reputations anyway & now they are accusing the Russians of poisoning UK residents based on no more than the idea that Russia could have produced the gas. Russia is already judged to have done it & is being told to explain themselves depite a complete lack of any tangible evidence & is heading for at least a major diplomatic incident.
Don’t get me wrong, I am fully aware that a certain amount of luck pushing might be in the mix but to punish for not breaking the law? What is next, imprisoning people because they looked like they might do something wrong?

Russia has been emboldened to this attack because of the UK government’s lack of reaction to the poisoning of Litvinenko.
In that case a trail was established and we knew who had actually poisoned him, but keeping Russian money in London seems to have been more important than acting against a murder in our capital.
The police are now looking into the unexplained death of another Russian who was a director of Aeroflot and had political asylum in UK.

Expel 23 diplomats - who have one week to leave
Increase checks on private flights, customs and freight
Freeze Russian state assets where there is evidence they may be used to threaten the life or property of UK nationals or residents
Ministers and Royal Family to boycott the Fifa World Cup in Russia later this year
Suspend all planned high level bi-lateral contacts between the UK and Russia
Mrs May told MPs that Russia had provided “no explanation” as to how the nerve agent came to be used in the UK, describing Moscow’s response as one of “sarcasm, contempt and defiance”.
The PM, who was earlier briefed by senior intelligence chiefs in Downing Street, added there was “no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian state was culpable” for the attempted murder of Mr Skripal and his daughter.

I think both you and Helen are treating this matter as though Russia is a saintly state.
It is not.
Putin is a tyrant
We have a Ukranian refugee, a biology teacher, who helps us in the garden who has come to France so that his children can be educated.
People were being shot dead in the streets.
It wasn’t Alice in Wonderland who was responsible, but the tyrant Putin and his puppet in Ukraniane.

Jane, I’m only pointing out the steps TMs government is taking to punish Putin. I assume Putin will now do something similar to UK. It’s all a bit handbags at dawn and doesn’t address the problem, if indeed Russia are the guilty party. Interestingly, France has said it will wait for definitive conclusions before setting out its stance.

Perhaps you are referring to the Deputy Prime Minster of Ukraine, Oleksander Sych a member of the far-right nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party. He is an anti-abortion activist and once publicly suggested that women should “lead the kind of lifestyle to avoid the risk of rape, including refraining from drinking alcohol and being in controversial company”. He has attracted criticism from women’s and human rights groups, some of whom face imprisonment for sedition against the Ukraine state…

Is it possible your Ukrainian refugee has left her homeland to avoid the imprisonment that threatens women who raise their voices against far-right demagoguery such as prevails throughout Ukraine since its Government was usurped by a CIA-provoked and supported coup within living memory (how quickly and conveniently people forget).

Novichok – ‘newcomer’ in Russian – agents have never been used in warfare and publicly available information about them is limited. They were designed to evade detection by Nato’s standard chemical detectors and to defeat protective clothing, as well as being safer to handle. They are binary agents – meaning they are formed by mixing two relatively benign precursor chemicals just before use, which makes them safer to transport, store and handle.

Perhaps he does, but we are in danger of getting a little ahead of ourselves here. If Russia/Putin are found to be involved in the assassination all well and good but at the moment it’s all a bit flimsy.

Currently Russia is saying that it has information that the United States is planning to bomb the government quarter in Damascus on an invented pretext…and will respond militarily if it feels Russian lives are threatened…Valery Gerisimov head of Russia’s general staff said Moscow had information that rebels in the enclave of eastern ghouta were planning to fake a chemical weapons attack against civilians and blame it on the Syrian army…

Quite so, Chris. We are talking about the apparent “taking out” of an Russian double-agent who has been in regular (monthly) contact with British intelligence AND Russian intelligence since he was turned over to the UK authorities on a spy-exchange deal. We have no idea what he has been up to since he was released from Russian custody but it seems common sense to me that he has been viewed by both sides as completely unreliable as an informant, biddable by anyone - including the Mafia and any one of several corrupt oligarchs living untouched and untouchable in Mayfair or Belgravia - and living on borrowed time. Those who live by the sword are destined to die by the sword. How many people have perished at Skripal’s behest, or at his hand, by the bullet, poison or garrotting? There are possibly scores of victims of Skripal’s serial betrayals who would pay to have him killed, and gladly take out a mortgage for the necessary pay-off.

Such issues and questions are (as usual) swept under the carpet of political distraction from domestic matters like Brexit, homelessness, corporate swindles and rip-offs, bankrupt local authorities etc. etc. I’m not victim to delusional conspiracy theories. It’s even more a sign of mental disorder to remain blissfully unaware when you’re being deliberately deceived by unscrupulous crooks in “high places” than otherwise, I reckon.